Tips for Team Meeting Success By Steve
Waterhouse
This month's tips are on TEAM SELLING meetings. Here
are 7 tips that will greatly improve your odds of
success when selling in a team. If you already know
these techniques, forward this message to your team
members so everyone is up to speed.
1. Always decide who will be the "lead" and who will
be "support" before you meet with the client. The "lead"
should control the flow of the conversation and bring
the "support" person in as appropriate. This may mean
that the support person does most of the presentation
and the leader facilitates the discussion. Whatever the
case, a decision in advance will improve the flow of the
meeting and give the client a feeling of confidence in a
well organized team. Never fight for time or the "last
word" in front of the client.
2. In team meetings, the listener(s) on your team
controls the client's eyes. If the person listening
(lead or support) looks at the client, the client will
return the look and be distracted from the speaker. If
the listener looks at the speaker, the client will also
focus their attention on the speaker. Listeners should
look at the speaker until they make a significant point.
Then it is appropriate to look at the client and give an
agreeing nod. When the client nods back, you have
confirmed that the speakers point was made. If you want
to see pros do this, watch a TV talk show or sports
broadcast. The speaker (not the camera) gets the
attention of the other broadcasters.
3. Work for your teammates. If one of your presenters
has handouts or presentation materials, make sure
someone else is prepared to hand them out. Assign one
person as 'gopher' incase the speaker needs something
during the program. This allows your presenter to remain
focused on the client and it also shows the client that
you are working as a team to support them.
4. Leave the client with one clear point of contact.
When you end the session, let the client know whom they
should contact. In some cases there are different
contacts for different situations. Clarify this by
offering one person as the primary contact for any
questions. In large presentations, a list of your
contact people and their responsibilities should be
prepared in advance and offered to the client.
5. Follow-up notes are appropriate from each of the
primary members of the sales team. If your team had many
members, notes from each one to their peers on the
client's team are appropriate and will help build
lasting rapport.
6. Debrief your team. Immediately after the meeting,
have a 15-minute debrief session to discuss each team
members sense of what happened and what should happen
next. Document any promises made to the client and
assign responsibility for follow up.
7. Run a training program for all members of your
presentation team to cover these points. At the very
least, send a copy of these rules to every member of the
team in advance of the meeting. If there are any
objections, they should be cleared up long before the
presentation. When you wing it, you risk going down in
flames!
For a free copy of "10 Keys to Sales Excellence"
email article2@waterhousegroup.com and request Article
2.
Steve Waterhouse is Principal and Founder of Waterhouse
Group (www.waterhousegroup.com), a sales consulting and
training company that helps companies dramatically
increase their sales. He can be reached at
1-800-57-LEARN or
info@waterhousegroup.com.
Re-Print Permission
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